Greet The Season an opportunity to meet the ships at Lake Union Park

Thanksgiving weekend provides another opportunity for classic boat lovers to get a good look at the grand old ladies of the Historic Ships Wharf at Lake Union Park with the annual Greet the Season event on November 30th.

This is Greet the Season’s second year. The event is free, although MOHAI charges regular admission that day, and most of the other involved organizations are happy to accept your donations while you’re attending.

Greet the Season starts at 10am and continues on through the evening. During the day, there are a variety of activities happening at the park, at the Center for Wooden Boats, and inside the museum. The Evergreen City Ballet will be performing excerpts from The Nutcracker inside MOHAI. There will be free admission to the atrium at MOHAI after 5pm, where hot cider and cookies will be available for purchase.

But the real attraction is the ships. Lotus, Swiftsure, Arthur Foss, and the Virginia V are all open through 5pm at least. Aboard Lotus, kids eight and up are welcome to take part in holiday card-making activities. Virginia V has a variety of craft activities all day long including ornament-making, knot-tying, and signal-flag necklace-making, as well as a series of local choirs performing on board from 1pm to 5pm.

Lights+Ships = Pretty (image from Northwest Seaport)

At sunset, Northwest Seaport will light up the Swiftsure. If you’re thinking to yourself, “But the light on Swiftsure is lit all the time, clearly marking the terribly dangerous waters at South Lake Union Park and saving the lives of countless mariners,” then you should know they are talking about Christmas lights… big strings of them festooned around the structure.

At the Center for Wooden Boats, the morning will include a Toy Boat Building workshop (10am – 12pm), followed by cookie decorating the rest of the day.

At 7pm, the Argosy Christmas Ships will depart from the wharf at Lake Union Park and stop in the waterway off the park for a performance by the Dickens Carolers from 7:15pm – 7:35pm.

The event is a great opportunity to get away from the shopping crowds downtown, and the park is a fast ride on the South Lake Union Streetcar from Westlake Center.